Did the CIA spy on the Senate?

posted at 8:01 am on March 5, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

More than a decade after it happened, the Senate Intelligence Committee has investigated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques and the secret detention program run out of the Central Intelligence Agency. The report, which McClatchy’s sources estimate will run 6,300 pages, is not expected to be complimentary. When that work is complete, the Intelligence Committee may have a brand new topic for a probe, and the Justice Department does now. The Inspector General of the CIA has referred allegations that the CIA spied on the committee and its aides during the investigation to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution:

The CIA Inspector General’s Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of malfeasance at the spy agency in connection with a yet-to-be released Senate Intelligence Committee report into the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program, McClatchy has learned.

The criminal referral may be related to what several knowledgeable people said was CIA monitoring of computers used by Senate aides to prepare the study. The monitoring may have violated an agreement between the committee and the agency.

The development marks an unprecedented breakdown in relations between the CIA and its congressional overseers amid an extraordinary closed-door battle over the 6,300-page report on the agency’s use of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists held in secret overseas prisons. The report is said to be a searing indictment of the program. The CIA has disputed some of the reports findings. …

The committee determined earlier this year that the CIA monitored computers – in possible violation of an agreement against doing so – that the agency had provided to intelligence committee staff in a secure room at CIA headquarters that the agency insisted they use to review millions of pages of top-secret reports, cables and other documents, according to people with knowledge.

This is among the worst possible accusations that could be levied against an intelligence service in a constitutional republic. For the CIA, it would be doubly worse, since the CIA’s charter forbids it to conduct any kind of domestic intelligence; that jurisdiction belongs to the FBI, and it’s significantly limited. The legislature oversees CIA, not the other way around, and if the CIA is snooping on their oversight work, that would undermine their authority.

The timing makes it even worse. American intelligence apparently never saw the invasion of Crimea coming; Eli Lake’s sources poo-poohed the possibility while the invasion was practically underway. If these allegations turn out to be true, the Senate (and House) Intelligence Committee may well wonder whether the CIA spent too much time trying to peek into its probe rather than do the job it’s chartered to do. Add that to the NSA scandal of the last nine months, and it adds up to a very bad time for American intelligence and civilian control.

Of course, these are still allegations, and from the somewhat-ambiguous description, it could be a misunderstanding related to tracking classified material. If there wasn’t any substance to the allegations at all or just a misunderstanding, though, the IG wouldn’t be referring the matter to Justice. The role of Justice isn’t to conduct fact-finding missions, but to open criminal investigations. Ironically, the SSCI report on CIA — which focuses on material misrepresentations made to the Bush administration on interrogation and detention policies, among other things — probably wouldn’t have resulted in Justice referrals after all these years.

According to Background Research attained from the website Conservative Refocus:

Doss’ background included the interview of terrorist detainees while also conducting boards to determine if a detainee should either be released, transferred to another facility, or retained under detention at Guantanamo Bay.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted to Doss’ interrogation team as being one of the terrorist masterminds behind 9/11…”

The NSA spying on Americans. The CIA spying on the Senate. The IRS targeting conservatives……….

WHO IN THE HELL WAS LOOKING FOR THE TERRORISTS?

Happy Nomad on March 5, 2014 at 8:19 AM

To be fair the IRS was/is looking into the Tea Party… they are hostage taking, racist terrorist. How else can they be explained? Obstructing little boots from bringing Utopia… bunch of redneck 1%ers. Things would be much better if little boots just Nationalized everything in the name of social justice!

The US federal bureaucracy is out of control. This is not merely a matter of which party controls the WH we need leaders who will sharply reduce the amount and scope of the federal bureaucracy.

rbj on March 5, 2014 at 8:24 AM

Article V Constitutional Amending convention of the States. It’s the only answer that avoids the inevitable bloodshed of a Revolution. You will never fix DC by electing people to send to DC.

There shouldn’t even BE a CIA, and if there were to be one it should be strictly limited to spying on non citizens. The law is very clear as to what the government must prove in order to spy on or search citizens…

To be fair the IRS was/is looking into the Tea Party… they are hostage taking, racist terrorist. How else can they be explained? Obstructing little boots from bringing Utopia… bunch of redneck 1%ers. Things would be much better if little boots just Nationalized everything in the name of social justice!

Article V Constitutional Amending convention of the States. It’s the only answer that avoids the inevitable bloodshed of a Revolution. You will never fix DC by electing people to send to DC.

There shouldn’t even BE a CIA, and if there were to be one it should be strictly limited to spying on non citizens. The law is very clear as to what the government must prove in order to spy on or search citizens…

ConstantineXI on March 5, 2014 at 8:35 AM

Uh, that is the CIA’s mandated role. They just abused it. We need a CIA, that is, one that sticks to its mission and does that effectively.

Uh, that is the CIA’s mandated role. They just abused it. We need a CIA, that is, one that sticks to its mission and does that effectively.

Bitter Clinger on March 5, 2014 at 8:37 AM

Yes, that was my point. The Constitution is very specific on what government must prove before it can violate a citizen. Spy agencies that do it as a daily routine are an affront to the law. Every bureaucrat who participates is a criminal.

“Authorities say unemployment and drug addiction have spurred an increase in the destructive practice of cutting off the knobby growths at the base of ancient redwood trees to make decorative pieces like lacey-grained coffee tables and wall clocks.

The practice – known as burl poaching – has become so prevalent along the Northern California coast that Redwood National and State Parks on Saturday started closing the popular Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at night in a desperate attempt to deter thieves.

Law enforcement Ranger Laura Denny said Tuesday that poachers have been stalking the remote reaches of the park with their chain saws and ATVs for decades, but lately the size and frequency of thefts have been on the rise.

“When I interview suspects, that is the (reason) they say: their addiction to drugs and they can’t find jobs,” she said…”

Yes, that was my point. The Constitution is very specific on what government must prove before it can violate a citizen. Spy agencies that do it as a daily routine are an affront to the law. Every bureaucrat who participates is a criminal.

He spied on the House…He spied on the Senate…He spied on every American but especially those he needed ‘dirt’ on.

That is about the only way I can think of that the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court changed the Obama administration’s argument and RE-WROTE Obama’s Affordable Care Act to keep it alive. Kennedy, who is normally the ‘swing vote’ even wrote in his opinion afterwards that Roberts over-stepped his bounds in doing so. Obama HAD / HAS to have something on Roberts…

That is about the only way I can think of that the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court changed the Obama administration’s argument and RE-WROTE Obama’s Affordable Care Act to keep it alive. Kennedy, who is normally the ‘swing vote’ even wrote in his opinion afterwards that Roberts over-stepped his bounds in doing so. Obama HAD / HAS to have something on Roberts…

…and Boehner, Ryan, etc…

easyt65 on March 5, 2014 at 8:55 AM

I don’t think Obama is intelligent enough to wear socks of the same color on his own.

On August 17, 1975 Senator Frank Church stated on NBC’s Meet the Press without mentioning the name of the NSA about this agency:

“In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air. Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left such is the capability to monitor everything—telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.

“If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.

“I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”

With the current level of intelligence in the U.S. Sanate, they surly didn’t learn a thing.

They have allowed the various agencies of the Obama administration to provide services for the private use and consumption of the liberals and Democratic Party. If this had happened under a Republican administration the “Lap Dogs” in the media would be howling about how illegal and unfair this is, but since it is a incompetent liberal in the White House they just bow their heads get on their knees and kiss his (?) hand in obeyance.

Who cares? Let’s have a Motown party at the white house! And let’s jet around the country collecting huge amounts of liberal money so that we can continue the socialist lawlessness now on full display in Washington! And let’s take some more vacations. How about taking the family and friends to China? Gotta do it – only 3 more years of lavish taxpayer-funded vacations and there are so many places left unseen.

At the risk of this sounding like conspiracy, I often wonder how many elected and appointed officials have been threatened with information attained on them and/or their loved ones. If you have something to hide, it wouldn’t even take a direct threat. Justice Roberts comes to mind on his Obamacare decision.

Government spying on government, what could go wrong?
BTW….John Roberts….paging Chief Justice Roberts….the CIA would like to have a chat about the Unaffordable Care Act.
The government, any branch or representative of it, is corrupt and not your friend.
III/0317

If it weren’t for the reality of today’s truth, I would be rolling on the floor, laughing. This is like re-examining an “safe” or “out” call in the 1950 World Series while a new series is being played out.

The CIA realized that they were fighting the government as well as the foreign enemies of the United States when they were mandated to pull their physical assets out of enemy organizations and forced to rely on sigint only. So…they expanded that enourmously and today we have the extrordinary abilities of the NSA to keep track of communications of all sorts. Of course, still not as useful as having real people in these truly dangerous organization around the world, but after all…you gotta make do with what is available.

To think that they would not also keep careful track of and a virtual eye on the elected members of our government is both stupid and naive.
And if, by some chance, they are not doing so, then they are stupid. In the world of intelligence, there are no friends,…only threats and dangers that are posed by everyone, including (and perhaps, especially) your “masters.”

Central Intelligence Agency
25m
CIA Director John Brennan responds to Senate criticism, allegations agency monitored Intelligence Committee: ‘I am deeply dismayed that some members of the Senate have decided to make spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts’ – @ABQJournal
read more on abqjournal.com
=============================